Cheney Wants Libby to Get Medal of Honor

This post, written by James Heffernan, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

From sources that I am not at liberty to disclose, I've just received the following transcript of a confidential memo to the President of the United States written by Vice President Richard Cheney.

Dear Sir:

Now that you've commuted that rotten sentence, it's time to look ahead -- not just to pardon, which I'm glad you haven't ruled out, but to fit recognition of Scooter's extraordinary services to this country, by which I mean to our administration, because of course you and I both know they're the same.

Ever since Scooter was convicted by that goddam left-wing, pot-smoking, terrorist-coddling judge who doesn't begin to understand what is expected of anyone appointed by a Republican president, the whole debate about Scooter has been utterly wrong-headed. The vindictive left longed to see him rot in prison, while our loyal base -- sorely tried in the immigration wars just ended -- wanted him pardoned. Well sir, you've thrown the base a bone, and you've hinted that more meat is on its way. But why stop at pardon? Since we know that Scooter has faithfully served his country -- meaning our bold, resolute, unflinching anti-terrorist agenda -- in everything he did, why should he get no more than PARDON for his acts of heroic self-sacrifice? In a few weeks, after the left has stopped moaning over this commutation, it will be high time to stop talking about pardon and start talking about recognition. In my opinion -- and you know how strongly I can make my opinions stick -- Scooter merits nothing less than the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Now I know very well what Reid and Schumer and Pelosi and all the other Democrat ranters on Capitol Hill will say. They'll shriek at the idea that such a medal could go to a man convicted of perjury. If Libby gets the medal of honor, they'll say, it will demean every other medal awarded to a man or woman who earned it by extraordinary valor in the heat of battle.

OK then, here's what I'll say. Those who risked their lives in the heat of battle -- guys who leaped on a hissing grenade or charged a machine-gun nest or dragged a wounded man to safety through a hail of bullets -- they don't know what true valor is. True valor isn't facing a storm of bullets or a blast of bombs. It's facing down the scorn of the liberal media. It's making the case for war in the face of skepticism. It's keeping the faith in weapons of mass destruction even when all the so-called "evidence" says they don't exist. In the run-up to our invasion of Iraq, true valor meant fighting anyone who questioned our justification for going to war.